Brit-Cit
Brit-Cit is a megacity sprawling across south England, from Dover to Cornwall and north to the Watford Gap. Other territory under its control (the Brit Territories in 2100Prog #50: "The First Luna Olympics") have included Cal-Hab, South Welsh Peninsula, Gib Rock, and New Raj Protectorate. It has a power-sharing agreement with Sino-Cit over Hong Tong and with Mega-City One over the Atlantis transport hub, and corporate influence over Murphyville. The "Brit Territories" were first mentioned in prog 50, and Brit-Cit both mentioned and depicted in prog 485. Description Brit-Cit has many similarities to Mega City One - it is crowded with a population who live in huge city block apartments and crime is rife. Quite a few examples of England's more classical architecture remains, and much of the lower classes live outside the city in decaying 20th Century houses. In Brit-Cit proper, there are slums, such as the notoriously grim Behemoth housing project that spanned four square miles and was overrun with gangs and addicts; and pretty much all of Sector 4, a gangland full of body-modifying fringe cultures that the New Old Bailey saw as a riot in the making.Deathmasques, Degenomancer, City of the Dead, Dumb Blond The city is split into Sectors, both given the usual "Sector number" system and some named after the area they were built over, such as Oxford Sector. In marked contrast to Mega-City One, the welfare system ensures that everyone who isn't a criminal or insane has a job.(One definition of insanity is that you don't take the jobs the system gives you) Megazine #285 Class divisions and warfare are rife, with the aristocracy having great power and privilege. This has diminished since the massacre of the Judges' Star Chamber in the late 2120s.Megazine #285 The Royal Family still exist within the Forbidden Citadel, a bunker turned into an independent (and deliberately isolated) city-state from 2070-2114 before Justice Department took control.Megazine 2.18 Since then, the Royals have been seen in the wider world. The Student Prince, Prog 2002; For King and Country The BBC has evolved into the BCBC (Brit-City Broadcasting Corporation), which still runs a World Service''For King And Country'' audio. It has a smaller size than some of the other megacities - among other things, this means fewer psychics. The city gets its agriculture from the Eastern Agronomy: an artificial mountain range of hydroponic-vat complexes scattered throughout former Wales and East Anglia.Deathmasques Institutional corruption exists throughout the city, most directed by the criminal Overlords who came to power after the Atomic Wars. One of the more notorious was Efil Drago San, who is currently hiding off-world but retains influence in the city. Landmarks include Battersea Power TowerSummer Special 2014, the Isle of Old Dogs for veterans, Saint Paul McCartney’s Cathedral, the Greater London Crater in Sectors 29 & 30, and the Tat Gallery.For King and Country audio drama The White Cliffs of Dover have been sold to Mega-City One and an artificial Black Cliffs built in their place. Around the Spaceport are the Hinterlands, an international free-zone where the local laws did not apply and aliens mingled with humans.Armitage: Bodies of Evidence Brit-Cit and Mega-City One Brit-Cit has a "special relationship" with Mega City One dating back to before the Atomic Wars (to the extent of being the only nation that didn't condemn President Booth) and the two work together quite often. It was the Mega-City Justice Department that helped first establish the New Old Bailey in the aftermath of the wars.Various Dave Stone stories The two jointly administer Atlantis, the mid-point in the Atlantic Tunnel. Brit-Cit was responsible for the American Judges driving out Nero Narcos, Brit-Cit assisted in a MC-1 led international humanitarian mission in Ciudad Barranquilla, robot aid was sent in 2134 to help with Chaos Day, and the two cities have also run exchange programmes with their Cadet Judges, as seen in The Hunting Party. Brit-Cit is aware, however, that Mega-City One is deliberately concealing an "Alpha File" from them that could shatter this relationship; spies sent to retrieve it have "disappeared", leaving Brit-Cit unaware that the File contains information about an atomic war between Britain and "unknown parties" in 2150.Megazine #283, Judge Dredd: The Americans While Mega-City One and Judge Dredd have routinely counted on Brit-Cit as an ally, they have on several cases made it clear this goes mostly one-way. When irritated by the Privy Council talking up their alliance, he snapped that Mega-City One's "special relationship" is no different to any other small, corrupt state it wants something from. Megazine 319 Relations between Brit-Cit and the post-Chaos Mega-City One were undermined when Dredd exposed the Isle of Man conspiracy. Hershey suspected in 2138 that Brit-Cit was deliberately trying to "break us".Prog 1976: "Grindstone Cowboys Part 4" This was not just true, but the Brits were colluding with Texas City to do so. The Lion's Den History Having sold off everything else, the United Kingdom sold the Royal Family on the 25th August, 2047. Megazine 400 Brit-Cit had formed by 2057. Under the Unified Accord, religion, bigotry and sexism were been banned in Brit-Cit. The Church Of Grud And Jovus was allowed to remain only as a placeholder to prevent other faiths springing up to fill the gap. Megazine 212: Apostasy In The UK Part 1 In practice, these bans didn't stick. In 2070, while every other power was condemning President Booth, Brit-Cit remained America's ally and talked about compromise. Despite its ties the United Kingdom still had a police force instead of the instant-justice systemMegazine 267 and Megazine #240, Meet Darren Dead, in common with the rest of Europe. By this point, while the city liked to talk big about its glory days, it was a minor player''Judge Dredd: Psyko-Geddon'' by Dave Stone. One of the city's big exports was terrible reality TV.Meet Darren Dead Following the Atomic Wars, Brit-Cit had been directly hit and northern England and the Midlands were devastated by rad clouds blown in from the continent. The Royal Family fled to an underground bunker (which would become the Forbidden Citadel) and never re-emerged, chaos reigned, and a multi-faction civil war broke out between any and all parties. The Emergency Military Government became the 'official' rulers, while other factions included Gaels in the west, "Nomads" in the east, the Kentish Theocracy, the New Surrey Raj, and the Merseyside Tech-Zone. The smarter crime bosses and warlords knew this was unsustainable. Deathmasques and Psykogeddon books, Judge Dredd Megazine 2.31-33, "Armitage: Flashback II" The government took the time in 2071 to assassinate a prominent Irish politician, Aileen Brady, who was pushing for unification of Ireland. The botched operation by Covert Ops sank a passenger liner, the St Joshua. Unwilling to let the civilians onboard drown, Covert Ops (masquerading as Coast Guard) saved 78 of the boat's passengers and crew. This was one of the key events that ended Emerald Isle and Brit-Cit's historical animosity, and a covert group in the Isle of Man was charged with keeping the real events secret. Prog 1935 and 1939 The EMG eventually blockaded themselves into North London in 2079, and started to slaughter any opposition and carry out state terrorism on the civilian population. The London Liberation Army tried to fight them with guerilla warfare. Judge Dredd Megazine 2.31 By this point, the smarter crimelords had formed the Conclave and rebranded their soldiers as the 'Brit-Cit Judges', hoping to survive and take power by getting Mega-City One's aid (as Chief Judge Goodman wished to spread the Judge system further). Deathmasques and Psykogeddon books, Judge Dredd Megazine 2.31-33, "Armitage: Flashback II" Their main remaining threats were Gaels, the Nomads, a psychotic mutant Gabriel establishing a "Deathzone" in the northern wastes (though they were unaware of his existence), and the growing force of Judges taking over the south of the country. (The The early Judges were in fact formed by a conclave of the smarter crime bosses and warlords, hoping to survive by getting Mega-City One aid (as Chief Judge Goodman wished to spread the Judge system further). In 2080, the main factions were the EMG, the Gaels, the Nomads, and the Judges, who had taken over the south. An unrecognised threat was the psychotic mutant Gabriel in the northern "Deathzone". A young Armitage, fleeing London, and a small group of Judges clashed with Gabriel in the ruins of Birmingham, and seemingly killed him. The Judges, expanding fast, believed they'd soon have control of the whole country in "five years tops".Judge Dredd Megazine 2.32-3, "Armitage: Flashback II" In fact, they'd taken the country by 2082. Armitage: Flashback, Megazine 2.19 - 2.21 By this point, Mega-City One had cut off aid after realising the true nature of the Conclave but it was too late by then.Psykogeddon Eton College not only survived the civil war, but aristocrat Devlin Waugh was attending during it. His father Magnus, the foremost magical adept in Britain and Head Baphomet of the Tythonian O.T.O, died in 2083.Devlin Waugh: Innocence and Experience Brit-Cit opened relations with the decaying lunar colony of Puerto Lumina - one of the few states shameless enough to do so. This allowed one of its rising criminal psychopaths, Efil Drago San, to emigrate and establish himself as one of the Conclave's Overlords.Psykogeddon In 2087, Brit-Cit was still a post-war state, with visible damage and food shortages. The newly promoted Detective-Judge Armitage discovered that corrupt Judges and Efil Drago San were colluding to provide torture victims for rich clients, with people being picked up and 'disappeared' in the system. Armitage stopped Drago San and crippled him; Drago San murdered his partner Liona in revenge.Armitage: Flashback, Megazine 2.19 - 2.21 At this point in time, the Overlords were still establishing their control systems and were not yet as powerful as they would become.Mused on by Drago San in Deathmasques chapter 19 As the years went on, the Judges began to accidentally recruit more people who actually believed Justice Department was about justice or cynically saw it as the only game in town for order, as well as the original bully-boys and thugs.Psykogeddon The Annual Black Atlantic Swim began in 2088, where competitors from the western sectors would try to swim all the way to Mega-City One. This carried on until at least 2105: one swimmer finally survived the trip only to be sent right back home.Daily Star: Annual Swim In Armitage's youth, a youth drug manufactured from sloathe parasites was causing rich users to go psychotically violent and then die. The New Old Bailey fought a war of attrition against the dealers before Drago San, whose stookie business was being undercut, shut the trade down and committed mass murder on users (including vanishing them from their cells), their associates, and their families. Bodies of Evidence Parts 3 and 4(Megs 3.66 & 3.67) Goodman attended a Christmas Goodwill Summit in 2098.Monkey on my Back Brit-Cit's government invested in bringing the Caledonian Wastes back into the global community. Brit-Cit set up the Song-in-the-Sky satellite network to bombard the locals with subliminal messages, making them more controllable (and more 'comedy stereotype'). The Baxter Genepool project, started in the 2080s, began to create a breed of future Judges. By 2101, the newly established Cal-Hab and its Judges - under the control of Brit-Cit - were back in the global community.Megazine 2.64 to 2.66: "Cal-Hab Justice: Family Snapshot" Brit-Cit also gave aid to the Emerald Isle; the county was reclaimed in 2095 in exchange for Brit-Cit corporations having a hold on it.Emerald Isle The economy was still in a permanent state of stagnation in 2100, which was born with cheery resignation by the citizens. Mega-City One had given Brit-Cit the same missile defence lasers that they had - unfortunately, East Meg One had established cells in the city and Orlok was able to gain data on it for the upcoming Apocalypse War.2000 AD Summer Special (2014): "Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One" (Most of the cells would be killed by Orlok when he passed through the city to Euro-City) In 2101, occult super villain Mister Bliss attacked the city with Qlippothic larvae and Psi-Division were unable to stop it - Devlin Waugh, now freelancing for the Vatican, saved the day. This was the first time he came to public attention.Chasing Herod Prologue In 2105, an enraged art-critic destroyed half of the Statue of Blind Justice’s head with a rocket launcher. The New Old Bailey never got around to fixing it. King Iggy made his first official visit to Mega-City One in 2107 and was harrassed by Judge Dredd for wearing fur and a crown that was incitement to mugging."The Royal Visit", Daily Star 31st August 1985 The city joined Luna-1's "Global Lunar Partnership Treaty" sometime in the 2110s, agreeing to guarantee the neutrality of Luna-1 and provide Judicial assistance (both Brit-Cit and Cal-Hab Judges). In reality it hoped, like all Treaty members, to have influence in the lucrative colony.Eclipse After years of negotiations, Brit-Cit were able to sell Mega-City One on a new trade agreement in 2111. Assassins tried to kill the British ambassador but were thwarted. True Brit, 1989 Mega-Special During the 2112 Fortean event, there were 419 sightings of the Black Dog and a descendent of the psychic Doris Stokes claimed to have Excalibur & pronounced the return of Albion. In the same year, Supersurf 12 was held in Brit-Cit.Chopper: Earth, Wind, and Fire In 2113, the Black Museum's curator Nathan Hand went violently paranoid, faked his death, and began killing Senior Judges. Armitage, his old protege, had to kill him in self defence. Armitage first story Unknown to Armitage, Hand had been unknowingly part of an operation involving Special Branch. Megazine 2.33 In 2114, the psychotic Heir Apparent Prince Arthur - who had begun leaving the Forbidden Citadel for trips to the city - slaughtered forty-eight people at an Oswald Mosley Block, many of them influential industrialists and bankers. Detective-Judge Armitage was forced to work with Efil Drago San, now the most powerful ganglord in the city, to bring Arthur to justice: the Judges had no jurisdiction in the Forbidden Citadel and Drago San's fire power was needed to overpower Internal Security.Megs 2.10 to 2.18, "Influential Bodies" The most significant event of 2114 was the horror of Judgement Day, where Brit-Cit was surrounded and almost overrun by the zombie hordes. Judge Armour was part of the pan-judicial strikeforce to take down Sabbat but unfortunately died in the first few minutes. 1.5 million zombies rose from within the city, out of un-recycled graves, as well as pouring in from the north. Simultaneously with Judgement Day, Gabriel returned and attempted to spread a techno-demon mutagenic across the world; an ad-hoc team led by Armitage stopped him.Armitage: City of the Dead The dual zombie and techno-demon attack on Brit-Cit left countless people dead across the city, as well as leaving Justice Department severely understaffed. Judge Dredd made his first visit to Brit-Cit in 2115 in pursuit of a body-hopping alien murderer. He and Armitage reluctantly worked together and found themselves battling Drago San, who temporarily trapped Dredd in his "Secret House" deathgame.Deathmasques Also in that year, issues with the Euro-Cred threw the Financial Sector into violent gang warfare between rival currency speculators. Judge Newt, the "Brit-Cit Brute" of the Search and Attack Squad, restored order by extreme violence and caused severe economic damage by killing most of the city's top economists and financial analysts. (The New Old Bailey tried to reform Newt's Search & Attack Squad into a more 'caring' agency. They failed)Brit-Cit Brute InterDep had been operating Culling Crews in Brit-Cit in 2116, carrying out gangland killings that the New Old Bailey couldn't be seen to be involved in. (Any Judges who got too close were also killed.) A Sector 15 overlord named Benny Kane was one of the victims.Culling Crew Unfortunately for Brit-Cit, InterDep went rogue the following year. Two members of the Council were (accidentally) killed at an InterDep conference that hoped to brainwash top Judges.Wetworks Cal-Hab's Psi-Judge Schiehallion went insane in 2116 and took out the Song-in-the-Sky satellites that pacified the country - Brit-Cit lost control of Cal-Hab and ordered the Brute to lead a psi-squad in. They were defeated and the Flux blanketed much of the zone. Cal-Hab Justice: False Dawn Since then, Brit-Cit appears to have lost control of the country. In 2117, Psi-Division stopped a demonic summoning at an orphanage. The sole surviving child, Lilian Storm, was inducted into Psi-Div.Megazine 391: "Storm Warning: The Relic" Brit-Cit officially refused to help Judge Dredd against the Nero Narcos takeover in 2121, fearing nuclear retaliation. In secret, it provided him and other exiled MC-1 Judges with the technology, firepower, and support they needed, and was instrumental in liberating the city. During the Herod crisis of that same year, Jack of Knives activated a Centre of Pestilence over the city. Sirius Rising By 2122, the New Old Bailey was under severe budget cuts - except for Shok-TAC, who had an increase on budget - and various services were being outsourced under "parallel resourcing" (nobody knew what that meant), while a general revamp had stripped many middle-management Judges of position and made them Administrators, with only bureaucratic powers and not judicial. The new Overlords had forced Drago San into exile in the spaceport-adjacent Hinterlands, stripped of his citizenshipBodies of Evidence 4 episodes (Megs 3.64 to 3.67), as too many Judges were focusing on the Overlords and the foreign Drago San was chosen as a scapegoat.Judge Dredd: Psyko-Geddon by Dave Stone Various rich and powerful figures were buying a new brand of sloathe drug from Medigen, including the Star Chamber; when the drug seemed in danger of being exposed, the elites ran multiple conflicting campaigns of murder to try and cover it up, only making it more obvious to Armitage that things were not right. With Drago San's help, he shut the operation down - and as Drago San (now with a stookie monopoly) planned to keep Medigen's clients cut off, it was likely that a lot of the elites and the entirety of the Star Chamber were going to die soon.Bodies of Evidence 4 episodes (Megs 3.64 to 3.67) The Chamber would manage to cling on to life but their extreme vulnerability turned them into a front organisation for the Overlords, who at this point in time merely wanted the system to remain stable and began using other ways to direct Justice Department. Drago San proved unable to exploit anything as the Overlords let Justice Department declare 'open season' on him, forcing the crimelord to flee to Mega-City One.Psykogeddon Brit-Cit's new crown prince, the obnoxious Prince Rudolph-Wilheim III, visited Mega-City One in 2123 to attend university. He was soon arrested by Judge Dredd for littering - which increased diplomatic ties between the cities.The Student Prince In the same year, Brit-Cit joined Mega-City One and Hondo City in presenting a united front against the alien Law Lords. In the event of the Lords arriving on Earth, Brit-Cit will go to war against them.Lawcon Judge Dredd and Brit-Cit expat Judge Amy Steel headed for Brit-Cit to investigate Steel's stepfather, the ganglord Harry "Killer" Karter, in 2124. Claiming to be reformed, Karter had offered Chief Justice Willink – a man who had been too close to the gangster for years - a micro-crystal pilfered from Drago San that contained all the data on Brit-Cit crime bosses. Karter had added a data bomb so that when the New Old Bailey hacked in, every judicial file, alarm, encryption and code would be disabled and he could rob the city blind. Karter was killed by Dredd before he could use a databomb to commit mass bank robbery but Steel was left psychologically broken. Armitage promised that Willink would be watched Get Karter! and shortly after, Brit-Cit had a new Chief Justice, Leavy.Jihad audio drama Chief Justice Leavy was part of Brit-Cit's delegation to the Global Justice Summit in 2126, where he immediately attempted to suck up to Chief Judge Hershey and was accused by Euro-City's Chief Judge Boltstern of ignoring his city. As with other Summit delegates, Leavy wanted Hershey to capitulate to Judda demands.Jihad audio drama To draw out a traitor in the Royal Court, the Judges staged the assassination of Queen Betty, Duke Stavros, and Heir Apparent Prince Albert in 2126. To their surprise, Mega-City One popstar Brightly Shines claimed her son Justin was the heir - he was unwittingly a clone intended for this purpose - and tried to wrangle her way into power. The Royal droid Polearm was revealed as the traitor (trying to kill the Royals to drive up the value of collectibles) and Justin was killed protecting his bodyguard Judge Dredd from a bullet. For King and Country audio drama Brit-Cit was one of multiple states that stepped back and allowed the Sov Block to violate Luna-1's sovereignty in 2126. Ironically they'd sent up a Judge, Foster of the Diplomatic Corps, to be rid of him - and he helped defeat the invasion and allow acting-Marshal Dredd to annul the Partnership Treaty so Brit-Cit lost all control.Eclipse The Star Chamber was wiped out by Drago San in 2127 by one of Drago San's plots and Justice Department openly celebrated their demise. Judge Dredd: Psyko-Geddon by Dave Stone The sudden loss left a confusing power vacuum. This was labelled a "bright new dawn for Brit-Cit", though nobody was quite sure what it meant. The new changes included the loss of many of the more incompetent Senior Judges''Megazine'' #287, as well as a mass of procedural nightmares from having no replacement hierarchy.Megazine #289 The disgraced Senior Judge Guy, left jobless by the fall of the Star Chamber, took control of the Chamber's sleeper agents in 2131, using them to kill "undesirables". Armitage found the secret chamber of "bio-processor units" (brains in tanks) that controlled the sleepers and had it destroyed: most of the sleepers fell catatonic with intense grief, screwing up Brit-Cit's infrastructure and causing a survivor (formerly of the Culling Crew) to bomb the New Old Bailey in revenge.The Mancunian Candidate By 2133, the Grand Order of the Privy Chamber ended up taking control by default, despite their previous unimportance and their reactionary social agenda, as there was no one else left.Megazine #319 First Minister/Prime Chancellor Jeremy Caine made sure to please the mob with bigoted platitudes (even announcing plans for "hygienic and well-appointed camps" for foreigners) and relations were cut with Euro-City. Aware that this could only last so long, Caine had Mega-City technology stolen by a covert agent in early 2134 in the hope of using Judge Dredd's DNA to power up his own charisma. Instead, it was booby-trapped and he was killed. Armitage, Megazine 319-21 The Chaos Bug reached Brit-Cit in 2134. Borders were sealed to prevent further contagion. After the revolution on Mega-City One's Titan penal colony, the Americans had to seek aid from Brit-Cit to rebuild it. Prog 1924 In Britain itself, Psi-Division lost control of an artefact in Gulshaw, north-west Brit-Cit and, after losing two Judges, sent Judge Storm in.Megazine 391: "Storm Warning: The Relic" Most significantly in 2137, Brit-Cit sent Judges to help Murphyville murder Dredd while "resisting arrest", after his partner Fintan Joyce was believed to have evidence on the St Joshua cover-up. When this led to a massacre, Murphyville's acting-Chief Judge Walsh called it off and revealed the truth. Brit-Cit and Emerald Isle raided the Isle of Man to 'clean up' the affair and the full details were obscured, but the details of the cover up came out. Both city-states blamed each other and tensions began to rise. Prog 1938 In 2138, they decided to make Dredd and Joyce into a shared enemy to reduce tension; Brit-Cit requested Dredd be extradited for the Murphyville Spaceport shooting and Council of Five member Farrow was concerned that the foreign city had the power to enforce it. (Hershey and Judge Beeny worried he was working for the BritsProg 1973-4) Other judicial factions wanted to take this opportunity to finally bring the Emerald Isle to heel and one faction, under the noses of the rest of Brit-Cit Justice Department, combined the two plots and faked Dredd's death before teleporting him to their custody. After the assumed death of Dredd, Mega-City One extradited Judge Joyce to Brit-Cit for a show trial (on assurances he wouldn't be sentenced) to buy diplomatic breathing room. Senior Judge Mayhew's faction, including members of Intelligence, then staged a fake paramilitary raid to 'rescue' Joyce (killing several Judges), hoping to manipulate him into giving them an atrocity to turn on both MC-1 and Murphyville for. Joyce saw through it and was pursued through Brit-Cit, while the faction attempted to make use by staging fake 'Irish' terrorist attacks; the plot was undone when Joyce teamed up with Armitage to identify the culprits and Dredd simultaneously escaped from his prison ward, taking Mayhem captive. The MC-1 Judges were allowed to depart by Armitage, who called in other Judges to arrest the conspirators "The Lion's Den" and officially, nobody high-up knew Mayhew's group had gone "off book".Megazine 380 For a year after, relations were severed with both Mega-City One and Texas City - the new Chief Judge Lewis being a secret agent of MC-1 - until the new ambassador, September Hart, was shown to be someone they could trust. Teenagers of the embassy staff were kidnapped by a mutant group and rescued by Dredd, including a young Nelson Kreelman.Megazine 380-81 The long-overrunning Executive Tunnel project, an elite new train line that would displace poorer residents, was still being built in 2141 despite heavy protest - all such protests ignored by Councillor Agnes Magnus. The project was targeted by a series of supernatural murders. Storm Warning: Green and Pleasant Land Government The city-state remains a constitutional monarchy (where the Judges truly run things), presumably leasing some of the royals back from the venture firms Gifthorse and, after 2101, United Exploitation. They reside in the Forbidden Citadel in Sector 43's Dulwich Park, their bunker during the Atomic Wars. The full title of the monarch circa 2114 was the Sovereign King Of Albion, Emperor Of Asia and the Turkistan Protectorates and Postmaster General Puissant of the Anglo-Celtic Commonwealth. King Iggy was on the throne in 2107. In 2114, the monarch was the incredibly senile and decrepit King Dilbert. The last known monarch was Queen Betty, in 2126. (The main line suffered a regicide in Antarctic City and Queen Beatrice's psychotic son Harry was made Harry II, still leased out to foreign cities until he was shot in Mega-City One in 2140) Command of Justice Department was originally held by the Conclave of criminal overlords but would later be held by the Grand Order of the Star Chamber - a fancier title for their Council of Five. They were known for high institutional corruption and were drawn from the ranks of pre-war politics, business, and minor royalty rather than from the Judge ranks.Megazine 3.65 Many were horrifically old, kept alive by stookie and other illegal drugs. When two Council Judges died in 2117, the Star Chamber stayed did not replace them: they were shown to have just three members in 2122, including the perverted Councillor Sleed. The Overlords, while no longer having direct control, still de facto ran a lot of the city but had to take into account the autonomy, and genuine anti-crime interests, of the newer Judges. In 2127, their number was five again and they were well-known within Justice Department to only be a front group, clinging on to dear life. The Overlords were now de facto in control via other means. What remained of their minds was dedicated to getting their power back.Psykogeddon After the Star Chamber was wiped out, a confusing power vacuum left the city-state riddled with jurisdictional issues''Megazine'' #289 and CID enjoyed a brief few years of greater autonomy. Various aristocratic connections ceased to work and the Overlords were partially on the backfoot. The Grand Order of the Privy Chamber - the future version of the Privy Council - would fill the vacuum, much to the distaste of some of the Judges. Megazine #319-22 In 2138, Chief Judge Mitchell was in charge. Prog 1982 In 2141, a city council akin to Mega-City One's was also in existence (and notably corrupt and elitist). Councillor Neville had been replaced as leader by Councillor Agnes Magnus, who held blackmail photos on a prominent BCBC manager in case she needed favourable coverage. Storm Warning: Green and Pleasant Land Judges The Brit-Cit Justice Department is based in the New Old Bailey. It is very similar in structure and effect to the Mega City One justice system, with uniforms that appear based on their American counterparts. Compared to the modern day, the Judges are highly fascistic. Compared to Mega-City One though, they're quite lenient: Detective-Judges are allowed to marry, tea and sugar is legal, crime blitzes and lie detectors are not yet legalisedMegazine #269 and #301. Prospective Judges spend ten years at Hendon Academy, followed by twelve months on probation with a Judge.Judge Dredd Megazine #1.10 Mega-Special #1 describes Street/Beat Judges as: "Calm, assertive. Tolerant to a point then swift to act and deadly to go up against." Due to the Overlords' establishing the Justice Department, judicial corruption in Brit-Cit has historically been a major problem. Senior Judges could traditionally buy their commissions in the same way as Victorian military officers, and many at the top were Freemasons with links to the criminal Overlords; the incompetence and corruption left it to Street and Detective Judges to get the work done. This has changed over time with the rise of a more principled new generation - basically, by faking that it was a force for justice, the New Old Bailey ensured function followed form - and the death of the old guard. Specialised branches of the Justice Department include Dispatch, the equivalent of MC-1's Control); Riot Control; Psi Division, sometimes Psyk-Division; Med-Division; Special Branch, who run External Affairs (the equivalent of the Special Judicial Squad); the Endangered Species Squad, who capture fantastical creatures and attempt to breed them in order to rejuvenate the collapsing 22nd century ecosystem;Judge Dredd Megazine #319, Strange and Dark and CID, the investigative branch. For intense military strikes, the city has Shok-TAC, the military uniformed Tactical Arms, and the Special Judicial Service commando unit. (It also had the Search and Attack Squad until all had died by 2114Brit-Cit Brute) Overseeing this since the 2120s are Administrators, who wear formal suits and lack judicial powers. CID is not popular with the "uniform plods" but gained an unspecified autonomy following the end of the Star Chamber,Megazine #266, Armitage: Dumb Blonde up until the Privy Council stepped up. Psi-Division are hamstrung by the small number of psychics and have recruited many psychics with psychiatric problems to fill the gaps.Megazine 287 The head of Psi-Division in 2137 was Judge Campbell. Judges of note The most famous Brit-Cit Judge in Dredd strips is Detective-Judge Armitage, often paired with Detective-Judges Treasure Steel and Timothy Parkerston-Trant.Tek-Judge Rutherford, one of the city's best robotics men, played a primary role in ending Mega-City One's "Doomsday" crisis by reprogramming Nero Narcos' Assassinator droids. Detective Inspector Jericho Strange runs the Endangered Species Squad and is notable for his grotesque, sheep-skull head; this has made him a media star with his own TV show. Arthur Conan Newt, "Brit-Cit Brute", was the city's highest rated combat Judge until he was MIA during Cal-Hab's Flux crisis in 2116. Two prominent Brit-Cit Judges who were transferred to Mega-City One are Judge Stark and Amy Steel, a sidekick for Dredd in the Big Finish audio dramas. Foreign territories * Cal-Hab (unwillingly) * South Welsh Peninsula: the name implies the Atomic War has altered the geography. The only known settlements are small, rural villages. The coast was dominated by the massive Pembroke Dockport fuel refinery in Milford Haven, the source of a number of contaminants and spills that killed, infected, and sterilised small Welsh villages; the Justice Department was paid to ignore the environmental damage. The conspiracy was exposed in 2134 and the Dockport shut down. The village of Llandris has a breeding colony of satyrs and was declared a protected area by the Endangered Species Squad.Strange and Darke: New Blood, Megazine 319-323 * The New Raj Protectorate, AKA the Turkestan Protectorates, in former Turkmenistan. It was occupied by the New Surrey Raj after the civil war.The Medusa Seed and Megazine #270, Armitage: Dumb Blonde * Hong Tong: somehow, Brit-Cit has gained jurisdiction over half of its former colony. * Gib Rock: future Gibraltar. After the territory became too much trouble - with food riots, terrorist groups, and clashes with Ciudad Espana - Brit-Cit dropped a nuclear bomb on Gib Rock.Megazine 2.11, "Cal-Hab Justice Part 2" Unknown to the world at large, Brit-Cit had run a population control operation at Gib Rock using genetically engineered monkeys but instead of calming the populace, a flaw in the process had sparked greater chaos.revealed during Cal-Hab Justice: False Dawn S Depiction ]] Brit-Cit was first created for the Daily Star Dredd strip, for the story "Annual Swim".27th Feb 1982 Ron Smith drew a pair of Judges from the shoulders up - a design that would be partially reused by Smith in a later Star strip, "The Royal Visit", but was supplanted by Brendan McCarthy's design for "Atlantis". The city has contradictory depictions depending on who is writing. Under Dave Stone, Brit-Cit was considerably fleshed out and there was much focus on institutional corruption; John Wagner, who originally created Brit-Cit, has ignored this in his Dredd stories and has the Justice Department as being more like Mega-City One's, the city simply America's very British ally. When Dredd visited Brit-Cit in "The Doomsday Scenario", instead of the Star Chamber we saw a Chief Judge and a large governing body in an open assembly room. In the 1990s, when Armitage was a more regular presence in the Megazine, other writers would more often lean towards Stone's approach but since then, they tend to follow the Wagner model. One exception is Michael Carroll, who wrote the city as subtly antagonistic and power divided between quiet factions. One other minor divergence is that the Royal Family lack any political status in Brit-Cit in Armitage, whereas most other material (beginning with the Daily Star and being the plot of For King and Country) presents the Royal Family as the constitutional heads of Brit-Cit - up until Wagner decided in 2018 that the monarchy had been sold off long before! Brit-Cit has appeared several times in the Big Finish 2000AD audio dramas. Both the Stone & Wagner versions Brit-Cit justice were used in the Dredd audio play Get Karter!, while For King And Country uses elements from the Armitage strips (the Forbidden Citadel and Star Chamber) while portraying the Brit-Cit Justice Department as mainly effective. The origin of Justice Department and Brit-Cit's history is also contradictory. Dave Stone's version is that Brit-Cit was a "global irrelevance" by the time of the Atomic Wars and only faced fall-out rather than a direct assault as it wasn't worth bombing; Justice Department only existed after the fallout and resulting civil war, and was created solely by organised crime for aid. "Hardly anyone else on the job agrees with me."http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=2295 Indeed, it has been contradicted by other Brit-Cit stories - Meet Darren Dead (Megazine #240) and Wagner's "Origins" both show Brit-Cit being bombed during the war (Darren Dead refers to the city almost being annihilated). John Smith's Devlin Waugh: Innocence and Experience shows no sign of a civil war. Trivia * Dave Stone's Armitage and Treasure Steel stories in the 1990s were building up to an event called Janus involving Special Branch and the ZipCo company, which was related to Judge Nathan Hand's insanity and involved placing an implant within Steel. The pitch for the final story never happened. Stone gave the pitches to the Class of '79 fanzine. It had been planned that the Judge/ZipCo conspiracy used neural implants to force Armitage and Steel to murder 'loose ends' (a prototype of this had driven Hand mad), and the grand Janus plan was to infect the city and brainwash them into violent greed in order to shift ZipCo's shoddier products. Class of '79: Armitage * Another Brit-Cit is the home of Sam Slade in some of 2000AD's Robo-Hunter stories. * In early progs and Annuals, Invasion!, Ro-Busters, and Flesh were also loosely in continuity with Judge Dredd and Harlem Heroes. References to Mega-City One and watching Harlem Heroes in Ro-Busters, while a reprinted Mega-City Time Tour feature in Judge Dredd: The Restricted Files vol.4 refers to 1999 England as another holiday destination. This would have made the 1999 Volgan invasion of Britain as part of Brit-Cit's history, but it has since been retconned out. References Category: Locations